


Backstage

by PurplePluto



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Band AU more specifically, Deceit is Sassy, Guitarist Virgil, Human AU, M/M, Not Beta Read, Remy and Deceit are there, Singer Patton, There's like one whole curse word
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-23 14:11:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19152643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PurplePluto/pseuds/PurplePluto
Summary: Roman drags Logan to a concert to meet up with a singer he met, however a guitarist catches Logan's eye.





	Backstage

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry, I'm really bad at summaries. This is my first fic, so I'm really sorry if people are ooc or the pacing is weird. If you have any constructive criticism, please put it in the comments. I hope you enjoy this, I worked really hard on it. The songs mentioned are (In order): The Mayday Parade cover of Somebody That I Used to Know, Hey Mickey, and Sick of Losing Soulmates

Logan knew where he was going when he saw the two tickets taped to a poster on the counter. Logan understood what was about to transpire when his all-too-extra roommate Roman Prince explained incessantly about the singer he had met two months prior. But it was not until he was painted with eyeliner, dragged out the door, and sat down in a creaky wooden chair that he really understood what an ordeal it would be. His roommate had dragged him to some anthology style concert in a run down theatre 30 minutes from their university. Not because he was a lover of up-and-coming indie bands, but because of someone who was participating.

Despite the impracticality of it all, it actually looked rather lovely. Only the first ten rows or so were filled, but they were tightly packed with people. The lights were soft and slowly switching from blue to red to green and back again, several posters and fairy lights adorning the wall. It looked slightly out of place in the classic theater with everything decorated as though it either belonged with a fairy or grungy 90’s teenager. An unusual combination, but oddly enough it worked.

Roman made his way into the row of chairs, coming back from whatever it was he seemed to be doing. It was probably chatting up strangers, knowing him. Roman had a talent for that, getting people to pay attention to him. It was an admirable trait until paying attention to Roman turned into paying attention to Logan, who much preferred being left alone.

“Hey, pocket protector, did ya miss me?” Roman said with a wink. He was the essence of flamboyance and flair, dressed in something just normal enough to not be a prince costume, red glitter spread across his cheekbones, eyes, and hair. Truthfully it was the least extravagant night time outfit in a while. Still, it made Logan feel underdressed, just wearing jeans, a polo shirt, and tie. Plus some poorly applied eyeliner.

“Salutations Roman. The host seems to have made an announcement about that band you wanted to see. He mentioned they were performing next,” Logan said in a near monotone voice. Roman’s eyes lit up at the mention.

“The one Patt’s in? Fantastic! You’ll love it Logan, and Patton is so amazing, he has the best voice and adds such feeling to the lyrics and-” Roman started to ramble, only to be cut of by Logan.

“You’ve already told me this many times Roman,” Logan said bluntly. Those speeches could last half an hour easily. Quickly Logan added, “And you call me the geek.”

“That was harsh, Microsoft Nerd.”

“My apologies, was that too ‘Savage’ of me?” Logan asked, producing a small vocabulary card from his pocket.

“I regret giving you those,” Roman laughed, rolling his eyes. The music grew quieter and all eyes drifted up to the stage. A tall man wearing a yellow button up shirt with a black bow tie and bowler hat strolled up to the front. He had an odd scar across the side of his face that resembled snakeskin.

“Thank you Dragon-Witch for your… Intriguing performance. Next up is,” The man gave the backstage a side-eye before scoffing and rolling his eyes, “The Insomniacs.”

The room blacked out for a moment, leaving thuds and light footsteps in the darkness. When the lights came back on  the stage was occupied by three men standing center stage who looked drastically different.

The first, presumably the drummer by the sticks he was twirling like a fairy wand, was wearing dark, dark sunglasses that completely obscured his eyes, and besides the lipstick, was dressed rather plainly. The oddest thing about his outfit was the shirt he was wearing, plain white with a thick black font writing “SLEEP”. If Logan was being honest, he just looked like a tiring person.

The next was slightly shorter, with rounder features. He was wearing glasses not unlike Logan’s that were sat upon freckles that were extremely noticeable, even from where Logan was sitting. He was wearing a light blue polo with a cardigan tied over his shoulders like a cape. He looked rather cutesy, bursting at the seams with bubbly energy.

Then there was the last. The final man was dressed in dark clothing, black and a purple color that matched his hair. His clothing was slightly tattered, his hair a little messy, and wearing enough makeup to surprise even Roman. Just like the freckles on the second man, the eyeshadow he put under his eyes was probably visible from space He looked a bit like a rock star: intense, chaotic, and undeniably attractive. Objectively, of course.  This had to be Patton.

“Hi! We’re The Insomniacs,” Loud cheering cut through the man’s excited voice, which was surprising considering the few people in the room, “and we are so happy to be here tonight! As always, we’re gonna play three songs for you guys, two covers and one that we wrote ourselves.”

The man with the sunglasses casually strolled over to the drum set, where a precariously placed Starbucks was waiting for him on top of the bass. How anyone could manage to balance it, Logan would never know. The man who was presumably Patton walked intently in the other direction, swinging a guitar out from behind him, while the freckled man stayed, center stage, resting his hands around the microphone.

Wait. Roman definitively said “singer”, not guitarist. How had he not noticed the strap before? Must have been distracted by something. Maybe the lights. Maybe the background noise. Maybe the man’s face. But either way, Patton couldn’t be him, unless he was both guitarist and singer, which was unlikely. Patton had to be the cutesy man standing center stage.

Sure enough, the music started playing. First, the band played a more Rock n’ Roll version of some pop song Logan barely recognized. Everyone else loved it though. Roman was right, Patton did have a lovely voice. Logan, however felt his eyes being dragged just to the left of him, to the guitarist. He looked so confident playing, like any worry of messing up was infinitesimal. He was also extremely skilled at the guitar, so there was that too.

The next song they played was different, more upbeat. It was a little older, a little more repetitive, a little happier. It also happened to make the three men dance a little. Patton did some simple swaying movements with overly flamboyant hand gestures. Honestly, it reminded him of a dad dance mixed with Roman’s personality. Eyeshadow-Guitar-Man was just bopping his head up and down, the fakest bright grin plastered on his face. It was extremely clear that he did not seem to want to perform that particular song. Even Sunglasses was doing a little bop to the tune. People in the audience even started to dance along, lip-syncing along to the lyrics.

Finally, the song ended and the room quieted. The lights started to dim even further as ukulele started to play and a spotlight was placed on Patton. Logan looked over to see Roman had leaned forward in his seat, staring in anticipation

The song was softer and calmer than the last two, with Patton’s vocals coming through clear and melancholy. Sunglasses had almost fully transitioned to being backup vocals and Eyeshadow Guitarist had quietly set down the purple guitar and picked up a similarly colored acoustic one, a rather illogical thing to do, but the song sounded pleasant. Everyone in the room started to be a little calmer than before.

Logan looked at the guitarist and saw him tilt his head to the side and then wink right near him. After a moment, Logan realized he was looking at Roman, but for a split second, he thought he winked at him. The thought put a not unpleasant feeling in his chest.

_Wait, is this attraction?_

Logan felt a slight panic at the thought. _It’s fine. It doesn’t mean anything. You’ll be fine._ Logan tried to reassure himself. Sure he was pretty, but that was all that it was, right?

The song ended, the lights going out fully for a second as applause flowed freely from the crowd. When the lights quickly came back on, all three members of the band were strolling over to center stage. Patton was waving, excitedly and wildly whilst grinning ear to ear. Much to Logan’s confusion, Sunglasses was _still drinking_ the cup from earlier. _Perhaps he simply enjoys carrying it?_

They all carried their things offstage, at least those who had things to carry, and the announcer from earlier walked back on, no happier than before.

“Great job everyone, what a _thrilling_ performance,” The man said, wearing quite possibly the most forced grin of Logan’s life. Which was impressive, considering Logan had to go to _several_ parties with Roman’s theatre friends. “Moving on, now it is time for our next act… Joan and The Beanies”

Just as people started to wheel off the drum set, Roman jumped up and grabbed Logan’s hand.

“Alright, pocket protector, it’s time for you to meet Patton,” Roman said, giving Logan no time to argue before starting to drag him. Weaving through several people, Roman pulled Logan to an older wooden door that was slightly obscured by a red curtain.

Roman put his hand on the doorknob, attempting to twist it before giving up and knocking. Not long after the door creaked open, leaving the two men staring at the announcer from earlier who looked, not surprisingly, annoyed. This look was amplified by his scar, which gave him a surprisingly snaky appearance.

“Oh, it’s just you,” The man said, opening the door so they could enter. It was a long hallway with a table in the center, quite a few people sat around it, with some sitting on the chairs that littered the sides.

“Hey Dee, good to see you! Any words of wisdom for your pal Roman?” Roman said, being overly dramatic as usual, something that was not well received by the announcer.

“Society is a lie, Justice is a fraud, Morality is meaningless, and I have so many better things to do than talk to _you,_ ” he said with a flick of his wrist. The movement exposed a name tag on the side of his shirt that read “Deceit” in thick block letters. 

“Excuse me, but if you don’t mind me asking, why does your name tag say “Deceit”? Is that your name?” Logan interjected, stopping the man from leaving.

The person in question rolled his eyes, as he turned to face Logan, “No, my name is most certainly not _Deceit_ of all things. What I asked for was D.C. however, some people are moronic staplers paired with, and I quote,” The man, D.C. apparently, cleared his throat and lowered his voice to have the tone of a stereotypical surfer who was trying to be a hippie, “Declan is like, a really hard name, and autocorrect is like, totally a bitch.” 

With that Declan turned around and walked away, leaving Roman to search for Patton and his band. The romantic theatrics seemed like overkill to Logan, but as someone who just felt attraction a few seconds ago, maybe he shouldn’t judge. Okay, that was a little _extra_ of him, maybe he should talk to someone other than Roman sometimes.

After a few seconds of rigorous search, Roman spotted his beloved. Running after him, Roman consumed Patton in a hug, a public display of affection no one seemed to notice or care about.  Besides their drummer, who was standing all too close, and nearly dropped his drink before returning to stare at his phone.

As the two separated, Patton looked up and directly at Logan. He smiled brightly, instant recognition flashing on his face.

“You must be Logan! Oh I’ve heard so much about you!” Patton said, motioning for him to come closer. The second he got close enough, Patton grabbed his hand to shake it.

“Patton Smith, it’s so nice to meet you,” he said, aggressively cheerful. Patton turned around and called out a name Logan didn’t recognize.

“Virgil! Get your butt over here!” he shouted, waving his hands around vigorously. The guitarist from earlier casually walked over.

“Virgil? Like the roman poet Virgil?” Logan asked, turning to the man. Up close he was taller than Logan. To be fair, they were all taller than Logan, as Logan was rather “vertically challenged” or as Roman preferred to call it, “shorter than his temper”.

“Yeah, it’s a weird name, but my parents were really into literature,” Virgil said, looking almost embarrassed at his name.

“It’s a _fascinating_ name, Virgil, not only is your namesake a poet but he is also used in Dante’s _Divine Comedy_ in which he…” Logan started to ramble out, stopping when he noticed the look on Roman’s face, “Maybe that’s a story for another day.”

The drummer finally looked up and noticed the two newcomers.

“Oh hey girl, what’s up?” He said, winking at Roman. He turned to Logan and eyed him up and down, “Who is this?”

“My name is Logan Gray, I’m a friend of Roman’s,” He said extending a hand. Sunglasses shook it quickly.

“Fun. I’m Remy.” Remy said with a wink. Up close, the drummer had a clear undercut and smelled like the inside of a Starbucks.

“Lovely,” Logan said, as he turned back to talk to Patton. Unfortunately, Patton was already busy talking to Roman. What they were discussing Logan may never know, however, they were extremely excited about it. As he glanced back, Remy had also left to go to some unknown place.

That left him with Virgil. The man was looking down at his shoes, a pair of slightly beat up purple converse. Logan decided to break the silence.

“What is it like playing the guitar?” Logan blurted out in a tone blunter than he had hoped for.

Virgil looked up suddenly, surprised that someone was talking to him.

“It’s nice,” he said, throwing an awkward smile in Logan’s direction, “I started playing when I was in middle school, so it’s pretty much natural at this point. Honestly, it’s really therapeutic, especially when I get worked up about something and can’t sleep, just to focus my energy into one thing.”

Logan nodded along, listening intently. “You said something about not being able to sleep, does this happen often?”

“God, you sound like my therapist,” Virgil laughed, rolling his eyes, “But yeah, I guess. Patton’s certainly better than I am about sleeping, but I’m at least not as bad as Remy.”

“So none of you sleep well?” Logan asked, one eyebrow raised, “At least that explains the name.”

“I mean yeah, we don’t have much in common, and you can’t exactly name a band “Caffeine Addicts”, according to Patt at least,”

“You all are coffee enthusiasts?”

“Rem is, but I’m more of a tea guy, and Patton’s into chocolate, if that counts. You?”

“Tea is quite enjoyable when accompanying a good book.”

“Of course. Favorite book?”

“A Study In Scarlet, or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, yourself?”

“Sherlock, huh. Somehow that doesn’t surprise me. Frankenstein is a good choice too. I’m also into classic horror, so I guess my favorite would have to be Twilight.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that one before. I’ll have to look it up.”

Virgil blinked at Logan in disbelief. He glanced over at Roman, who was having a conversation with Patton, and back to Logan. “You live with _him,_ and you’ve never heard of Twilight.”

“I’m afraid not,” Logan said, “What is it about?”

“The forbidden romance between a human, a werewolf, and a sparkly vampire in the small town of Forks.”

“ _Oh my.”_

“Yeah, It’s something,” Virgil said with a laugh

“And this book is your favorite? Classic horror, you said,”  Logan said, clearing his throat.

“What? Oh no, sorry that was a joke,” Virgil said, looking a little bit flustered.

Logan felt a little bad about that. He knew he was too literal sometimes and he knew it made other people uncomfortable sometimes. He just… couldn’t pick up on things sometimes.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Virgil said, almost reading his mind, “So what’s your major?”

“Astronomy, how about yourself?” Logan said, stopping himself from monologuing about it. People usually get disinterested after a sentence or two.

“I study psychology, I want to be a therapist later on. But you study _space_? That’s so cool! Tell me about it,” Virgil said, getting a little bit excited.

“Well, astronomers estimate there are around 300 billion stars in the milky way galaxy alone, each of those stars having a life of billions of years. And stars are mostly just hydrogen and helium with churning nuclear forges in its core. Also, different temperature stars have different colors, with higher temperature stars having a color of blue or white while lower temperatures are usually orange or red. And-” Logan started to ramble, before catching himself, “Sorry, I’m rattling on again, aren’t I?”

“No, I’ve just never seen someone get so excited about stars before. It’s- it’s charming, actually,” Virgil said, blushing ever so slightly.

Logan, despite himself, also started to blush. Maybe his small attractions weren’t as worthless as he thought.

“Mi amor, parting is such sweet sorrow, alas, I must bid you farewell,” Roman said extravagantly to a giggling Patton and an annoyed Declan. “Lo, come on, let’s go.”

Logan turned back to Virgil, who seemed to be searching his purple hoodie’s pocket for something. After a short struggle, he produced a small white card.

“It was, uh, really nice talking to you Logan,” Virgil said, his hands fidgeting, “Here’s my number, if you ever want to talk again. I do happen to know a bookstore that doubles as a coffee shop if you ever want to read Twilight. But if you don’t that’s also completely fine”

Virgil held out the white card, waiting until Logan reached out and grabbed it. It read _The Insomniacs~ Virgil Sanders-Guitarist_ followed by a phone number, email, and Instagram.

“Yes, that would be extremely enjoyable,” Logan said in a manner that was better put together than he felt at the moment.

“Let’s go pocket protector,” Roman said impatiently, tapping on his non-existent watch.

Logan waved goodbye to Virgil, Remy, Patton, and even Declan. Walking back down the hall and out the door into the main area, Roman strolled next to him and leaned down.

“So, do you think he likes me?” Roman asked in an almost childish manner. Logan couldn’t help but laugh at that.

“Roman, I can attest that even _I_ saw that he had romantic intentions towards you,” Logan said, looking directly at Roman, eyebrows arched in disbelief. This time, it was Roman’s turn to laugh.

The two meandered out the door and over to where Roman’s slightly beat up, but still somehow bright red, car was parked. As they both got in, Roman turned to Logan again.

“Thank you for coming with me, by the way. And I’m glad you got along with Panic-At-The-Everywhere,” Roman said, surprisingly sincerely.

“It was no problem, Roman, no need to worry about it,” Logan replied, remembering the little card he was holding on to.

So Logan may have been a little apprehensive about the event at first, however it did let Logan meet a few people, including someone interesting who thought Logan was interesting as well. Someone who wanted to talk to him again.

Maybe Roman’s theatrics weren’t so bad after all.

 


End file.
